Oil drilling at Ferguson’s springs 20 miles south of Wendover is taking a break for the holidays but the crew will be back next month said owner Eddie Moses, Tuesday.
While not saying much more than that, Moses who has drilled everywhere from North America to the Middle East, added that his company would be using the holiday off time to study the results of the test well that began drilling in October.
Some of the largest oil exploration companies in and out of the country are betting that oil can be found in Nevada and with drilling going on all over the state including just 20 miles south of Wendover they are putting their money on the line.
Exploration giant Noble Energy has leased 330,000 net acres in Northeastern Nevada and is looking for reserves of half a billion barrels with an exploratory drilling program beginning in 2013.
The drill head located just 20 miles south of Wendover near Ferguson springs is owned by Pebble Energy.
Since the early 1980 geologists have looked at Nevada as a prime candidate for oil exploration.
It was always known that there was some oil in the state. But the issue has been the economics. Back in the early 80’s, when oil was at a then very high $30 a barrel, the economics of exploration and production still weren’t very attractive. At $70 to $90 a barrel, the sales price vastly exceeding the lift cost causes the potential of Nevada to become far more attractive.
In addition to price fracking has put previously unrecoverable oil in reach.
Hydraulic fracturing is the propagation of fractures in a rock layer, as a result of the action of a pressurized fluid. Some hydraulic fractures form naturally—certain veins or dikes are examples—and can create conduits along which gas and petroleum from source rocks may migrate to reservoir rocks.
Induced hydraulic fracturing or hydro fracking, commonly known as fracking or fracking, is a technique used to release petroleum, natural gas (including shale gas, tight gas, and coal seam gas), or other substances for extraction.
Successful fracking has created an oil boom throughout the United States and will according to analysts help turn America into the largest oil producer in the world by the next decade.
And if preliminary tests yield anywhere near there forecasts, Wendover, Ely, Elko and Wells could become part of that boom.
